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GM, obviously. How many times have you played a game where GM states, "Banned PHB heritages are aasimar, tiefling, gnome, and dragonborn." The declared ban by the GM supersedes the rulebook. And by association, directly disallows the player from showing up and declaring, "My character is a...

So this got me thinking --- is something "unwanted" in the game's fiction a "fail state"? And if so, what actually constitutes a "fail state" in an RPG? Is it any state that any one of the players dislikes? Any two of the players? Three? Is it predicated on player participation continuing? Or...

But going back to @pemerton 's original question -- what ARE rules for? Some of Vincent Baker's thoughts only make sense in the context of a game where there's a need to carry over gamestate information across situational contexts, and where the conceptualization of the "rational actor" that...

You said it better than I did, for the record. The entire conception of the RPG "living world" essentially rests on the assumption that the GM is allowed broad power to "say things at the table" regarding "what is true" about the fictional space, and that the "things (s)he is allowed to say" can...

This, this right here? This is BY FAR the most difficult idea to shake coming from "trad" play styles. The notion of "the world the characters live in," that it somehow has its own independent existence outside the shared space of play. The fact that the GM can spout fountains of lore...

I imagine that the terms of most RPG licensing agreements have minimal revenue implications to the license holder after the initial agreement is signed and paid. Disney’s cut of royalties for copies sold is probably miniscule or possibly nonexistent. It would likely cost them more money to...

Even outside the discussion of illusionism, it's fascinating how often people inevitably live up to our expectations/projections of them. Go into a game believing and projecting that everyone is capable of sincere, earnest play in adherence to rules and the overall good humor and well being of...

I .... literally cannot make heads nor tails of this description of play, the reasoning behind it, nor what possible expected end result was satisfactory for the players involved. If this is your assumed manner of "handling" people as a GM ... and from your comments this is par for the course...

Very simple question - if I purchase the pdf pre-order from Backerkit, do I get access to the current beta material right away?

Even if you don't like the system, the Edge / FFG game books are great for lore. I happen to like the system and was playing it regularly until I moved last fall, but the lore is really well done. Every book is chock full of GM plot hooks, ideas, places. The Dawn of Rebellion source book has...

At one point I coined the phrase "principled illusionism" as an analogue to "imaginary naturalism", but it was still too "loaded" a term, as illusionism is seen as bad, and the worst kind of GM-ing generally. But it's the right idea. D&D adherents of "living world" aren't at all interested in...

Exploratory question for you, @bloodtide -- how many years have you participated in the RPG hobby, and what systems have you used? Truly just curious, wanting to get a sense of where you're coming from. What types of GMs have you played with in your earliest participation in the hobby? Were...

I appreciate your input and desire to engage with the ideas being presented by @Manbearcat and @The Shadow. It's difficult to conceive of the kinds of techniques and playstyles they're describing unless you've experienced them first hand. I similarly struggled for a long period of time until I...

At the point in time I read the baseline / core GNS essays on the Forge (sometime around 2016) I would have called myself a gamist/simulationist hybrid, with slight leaning to simulationism. I personally didn't find the core essays to be terribly biased against simulationism, and as far as I...

Chris Pine sits on the floor of a rustic inn, strumming his lute to a tune he's writing. "There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold And she's buying a stairway to heaven." Michelle Rodriguez: "Stairway to heaven? Isn't that a bit poncy even by your standards? No one's going to buy...

It is evening. A man sits alone in his outhouse, both reading this thread and not reading this thread (1HD commoner, 4 HP, AC 10, -1 Atk, Weap: Sewing scissors, 1d1 dmg, percent lair 80%, percent liar 90%). In the distance he sees the Rod of Seven Pants in his closet, faithfully housing the...

I'm a huge fan of the way Ironsworn does it, where it's an abstract rating --- but it can actually be used as an ability score to make checks. And certain failures/pressures put on the characters can reduce the Supply track rating. The other thing is, the GM is constrained in how they allow...

I think this was a bit disingenuous of Gygax, in a sense. Beyond maybe character level 3, hit points cannot reasonably be claimed to model actual body/health/injury status. Claims that it does are dubious at best. So of course it's only modeling "action hero fighting logic." I've said it...

To follow on, the RPGs I own with what I think are the coolest titles are Interface Zero, Court of Blades, and  Ironsworn.

Personal admission: I've come to seriously despise anything RPG related that uses the "Noun & Noun" paradigm for product naming. It's so over used that it now actively turns me off to whatever the product is. Same thing with "Noun: The Gerund". Whatever you choose, don't do those. Or do, as...